The BackYard
by Matthew s. Lewis
Summary: Strange reports from a neighborhood whete the team finds another SERIES! Just having fun Complete -


Sometimes people are the strangest thing in the universe, Scully mused to herself while . Perhaps that was why she loved them and helping them in her own way and why, on some level, she could understand what had occurred between herself, Mulder and the strange little enigmatic "person" their X-file revealed.

It had happened on a hot June afternoon when she and her partner, Mulder, had gone to check on a case. The X-files were a time-consuming business and one she liked looking into, if for no other reason than a visit to the bizarre. Her partner had his own ideas and that was the way he liked playing things. Fast and loose, with a minimal amount of scientific credo. She, on the other hand, thought that she had a grasp on everything with an approach gleaned from years as a doctor and as a scientifically-based mind. She tried desperately not to let her feelings come in and cloud her judgment of events.

Mulder and Scully arrived in a normal looking town with normal looking houses, hoping to find out what had transpired and caused so many alarming phone calls. There had been a host of strange occurrences in this area, but most of them dealt with crimes that were well below the Bureau's threshold. There had been a lot of little thefts in the area, strange ones as well as normal ones, that included all sorts of items that belong in the refrigerator, a few scanners, some items used for trapping animals and even ten cases of stuffed animals that looked like cats. A few people had reported seeing something strange looking at their cats as well, and some people had also reported seeing a strange looking animal moving around their property lines.

This was a few years after something has supposedly touched down in this area, leaving a strange blip on any scanning device powerful enough to pick up anything falling from the sky. That was what Mulder had reported on the matter anyway, and what he came to call one of his possible E.B.E. encounter sights. He had been looking into the place for a little while now, according to the file on the matter, but the case was still pending much - like many of them are - despite Mulder's constant requests that we "Blue Book" every page. The F.B.I. finally did take a look into the case when Mulder saw a chain of events in some of the fine print of the case, and had taken a huge leap-of-faith in taking this to the next level and burning resources to investigate. Mulder said this could be something leading to something bigger, like a cult we had seen or like a serial killer starting to operate.

If that were true, it would be well worth looking at.

Granted, Scully did not mind looking into all these strange affairs. After people like Tooms had been brought to bear and that odd "Flukeman" had been captured, she started looking into these hunches Mulder had as something quite serious. Sure, they hit a few dead ends sometimes and, sure, some of their cases really did not go anywhere. Dealing with the abnormal was bound to do that. She also wondered what happened to some of the things they brought in as did Mulder, although Mulder had expressed his dismay a lot louder than she had.

He wanted answers and, barring that, did not think that al things should just "vanish" from sight. Cancer Man seemed to scoff at Mulder's notions, calling them throw-backs, but he did have a point.

Besides, Mulder and Scully both were interested in this case. it was a strange one and not because of the fact that the X-files didn't deal with that sort of thing. They had plenty of cases involving the paranormal and plenty of cases involving something poking and prodding in a neighborhood. They just didn't normally involve felines or people seeing something skulking around their yards without some other causal narrative. Normally, their calls revolved more around missing people or homicides than anything else.

Mulder was still excited.

"I have a feeling about this," he had told her more than once. " and you know what that means.."

At first she had wanted to tell him that it probably meant that this place would have little men in strange suits having some type of barbeque, but she refrained from this course of action because she did not need an object lesson in space flight. Not today, not with Mulder seeing so willing to pounce, and not with him possibly carrying around a slide show of the Outer Limits. No, she simply jumped in the car and let events carry her away, to a small little area of the world where "The Tanner family" lived.

Apparently they had been involved in quite a few of these maelstroms of activity and they seemed like the only real piece of evidence in this otherwise flimsy looking X-file.

Mulder and Scully arrived at the front door of the Tanner residence at around 11:00 A.M. and went to knock when they heard some type of noise. Had they not been attuned to the way that places were supposed to sound it would not have even registered, but even then it did not seem to be something magnanimous and it was almost discarded altogether. The sound seemed to come from the backyard and not from inside, and it sounded like a few things being tossed around and the noise did not carry much.

Scully almost dismissed it as a possible child goofing off or as a neighbor looking through windows. That seemed to happen in this neighborhood quite a bit according to police reports, and the Tanners had two children from the reports that had been filed. Mulder, on the other hand, decided to look in the back yard and see what he could see. He didn't like letting something slip by him, not when they had something that possibly qualified as an X-file.

What he found was, odd.

He had just looked around a corner when his voice called out.

"Scully," he half whispered and half shouted.

"You HAVE to see this!"

"See what, Mulder?"

Scully had heard things like this in the past and, oftentimes, they did not pan out. Still, she heard the excitement in his voice and decided she should have a look.

As she peeked around the corner of that home she saw it for the first time, a seemingly little man that was not really a man, with some type of yellowish-orange fur and strange little hands. It had the strangest looking matted fur that she had noticed in her life, and the feet on it were odd as well, like they were oversized for movement.

The little thing was sitting outside, sulking in a way, with a walkman on. It had one of its hands pressed to its face, and it looked somewhat sad, like a child and yet not. The way it sat reminded Scully of a person in a lot of ways, and she wondered about those mannerisms and what they meant for her and the approach they should make.

Could this thing be - feral?

she spoke to Mulder, trying to restrain him with words.

"Mulder, that could be a kid, someone's child with some ailment. You know about the "werewolf" condition and what caused those rumors! You cannot just approach that person and accuse them of anything."

Mulder looked at her for a brief instant, flashing her a keen smile. If Scully were a betting person, that would be the look that said "a million dollar hand" and also said "don't bet against me." she knew it meant impulsivity if nothing else and balked at it, but she readied herself , knowing he was about to do something.

He then moved forward, hand on his weapon but not in an alarming way, trying to get between the little person and the door to the Tanner home. It took some trying, to, and a little off-and-on action. There was a lot of sneaking involved, a lot of what you learn in your training, and apparently it was paying ff.

After a few very tense moments, he was in place and looking to her once more, telling her it was time.

Scully was feeling like she should not do this, like something was wrong her and like a balance of some sort hinged on her actions. She could see a child in the headlines, in a costume that looked somewhat like a bizarre little person, pressing charges against the F.B.I. Either that or some childhood malady would make the papers, along with the caption about "Everyday Monster Hunters Nab Poor Kid" or something of that nature.

None of this seemed good, not in the least. There was no stopping it, not without taking control of Mulder is some telepathic way.

"Hello there," Mulder called out, letting his voice cut through the air.

Silence.

"I said HELLO THERE," he said again, this time a little louder.

As the words can out of his mouth the little person moved, and both he and Scully could tell that something was awry here. Two big eyes looked up and a huge, furry, finger reached down to the button on the walkman.

Click.

The tape turned off.

The thing looked toward Mulder and stood. It seemed awkward as it did so, like a small man with some sort of strange spinal condition.

There was a thought banging around then about it not being a human, not in the least, because of some of the things about it. The way the hair attached, the way the body moved, the way the skin seemed to stick to the joints and move in a way that a costume could not mimic.

"Don't think about it." Mulder went on, motioning with his weapon. He was trying to calm it down and it get it settled, hoping that he would not have to shoot it - not here, not now, not with proof so tangible.

The little thing had its own idea about what should happen and went to bolt anyhow, as though there would really be a place to run. It moved in as a curiosity, really, with it not really having the speed to threaten and not really having the will to escape.

Mulder pointed the gun toward the little bolt of hair, and Scully yelled to it to stop, that they were only here to help. Those words seemed strange for her to be screaming out, but the thing stopped in its tracks and did not start again, looking at her more like a prisoner than a cage animal.

The thing seemed to be scared, quivering, like it didn't know what to do. Finally it stopped, standing almost against the house.

"Fine," it said in perfect English, a gruff little voice emanating outward. "What can I do for you, maybe clean those weapons?" Strange laughter.

The things it seemed to know.

Mulder and Scully sat for a while, looking at the thing in the yard. It seemed small, a lot smaller than the reports, and strange, like it had been fed and like it had been cared for. Considering the fact that it stood out like it did, that it had no hostile interactions, and that it was wearing an electronic device, the two figured that it had been doing something here for quite some time.

What, they were not certain.

The thing had a story, but the story - it left something to be desired.

In its version of the events that had taken place, it had been coming from a planet that started with an "m." Mal-mack or something like that, although the words were odd. It gave a description of a flight plan and how it had been hot-footing it through the solar system and how it had gotten lost. Then it had some problems, had to crash, and ended up close to here.

It peered around nervously as it talked, looking for an outlet or perhaps a place to run. The two agents kept their weapons out but did not point them directly at it - it apparently understood what they meant.

Mulder cut into the things story, asking about some events.

"Let me get this straight," he started, looking at the thing, "you come from a planet with travel beyond anything we have ever thought of, have been stranded her for some time now, and you cannot come up with a plan to get home?"

"I never was into science. I'm an eater, not a maker. "

The little guy kept cracking jokes, almost like some sort of nervous tick. Its stomach, stomachs according to it, kept growling throughout and the duration of its tale kept getting longer.

"How have you survived, then?"

"I would tell you, but it would only make trouble for my friends."

Mulder wondered what that meant, if the thing had more shipmates or if there were people around here that knew, but he dropped it. This was not one of the things that took his sister, he could tell that just by looking at it. There was too much joking to it, nervous ticks to be had, for it to be the taker of people.

A creature like that would have something more to get away. It would not be stranded here, in a yard, interviewed with such ease.

"So, little guy, you have a name?"

"My friends call me Alf," it said, somewhat sullenly. "Or they did once, anyhow."

-Report-

Agent Dana Scully

The affair near the Tanner residence is somewhat of a perplexing mystery. The Alien Life Form, or ALF, did not reveal how it managed to acquire sustenance or what, if anything, it knew when it came to details about the going's on of other phenomenon like it had claimed to be a part of. Agent Mulder had elaborated at great length that its story proved that it was something extraterrestrial and that its knowledge of the stars and its body itself proved that we had found an EBE. I, on the other hand, do not feel the same way.

Perhaps the entity in question is an odd and perhaps even unknown variant with strange and hard-to-diagnose ailments, but those ailments still do not render it alien. Furthermore, many of the things Alf claimed cannot be proven and some seem like they should easily be refuted. It was as though it were intelligent in ways that humans are, but that it also had many human quirks including those seen in a despondent personality.

While I would like to further look in on this ALF from time-to-time, I must also note that while Agent Mulder had been transporting it "disappeared" while in his custody. It did not cause Agent Mulder any hard and there were no signs of a plan of any sort, but Agent Mulder seemed perplexed by its disappearance and said that it was gone. When I said we should canvas the area it was in when we found it, Mulder said there were more pressing issues and that we would not find it again. He seemed as though he did not want to continue this line of questions, and so we left the enigma of ALF here, in the X-files.

We have still to question the Tanners on this or to look into anything other than what is reported here briefly.


End file.
